By Zach Schonbrun
Scott Whitmore stood along the concourse on a recent spring night watching the final inning of a Staten Island FerryHawks home game wind down when a New York City police officer approached him from the third-base side.
"After the game," the officer said sheepishly, "you think I can get your daughter's autograph?"
Sure, Whitmore chuckled, though he knew the receiving line would be long. Outside of a handful of Yankees and Mets stars, the most famous ballplayer in New York this summer might well be Staten Island's pioneering two-way player, Kelsie Whitmore.
Standing 5 feet 6 inches, with dark chestnut hair that unfurls past her uniform number, she is impossible to mistake in the FerryHawks' dugout, warming up on the field or signing autographs. She is an unusual sight even in a league known for taking chances and pushing buttons.
The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, widely considered the highest level among baseball's independent minor leagues, has hosted the former All-Stars Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco and Rickey Henderson. But a woman had never started an Atlantic League game, nor pitched in one, until Whitmore, who has done both. She's the first woman to play in a league partnered with Major League Baseball since Lee Anne Ketcham and Julie Croteau joined the Maui Stingrays of the Hawaii Winter Baseball league in 1994.
That league was about the equivalent of Class A ball, whereas the Atlantic is thought to be closer to Class AAA, one step below the big leagues. At 24, Whitmore, a former Cal State Fullerton softball star, is making a run at sticking in professional baseball.
Continue Reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/sports/baseball/kelsie-whitmore-staten-island.html